New minister arrives in Tucumcari

July 1, 2004

TV Hagenah

The Center Street Methodist Church has a new minister. Moving into the pulpit of the Methodist church is Thomas Broom.

“I’m liking it here,” said Broom. “We (his wife Patricia and he) enjoy the slower pace of life in a small town. We’re glad to get out of the rat race.” The “rat race’ for Broom and his wife was being a minister in El Paso, Texas where he last served as a minister. However, it was not always big cities for the new Tucumcari minister. Before St. Paul’s Methodist Church in El Paso, the Brooms were in Lovington at First United Methodist and before that he was in Carrizozo and Capitan.

Broom was not always in the ministry, however, after he left his boyhood home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida he joined the U.S. Army and served in it for 23 years and that is, he said, where he received his “call” to join the ministry.
He received his ministry degree from Duke University and then went on to receive his Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity Theological Seminary in New Brugh, Ind.
“It’s good to be back in a rural setting,” said Broom about moving to Tucumcari. “So far we like it. We have been well received and we are happy with the church and everyone we’ve met.” Center Street Methodist Church members say that they on their side are happy that Broom has come to Tucumcari to take over their church. “We’re just thrilled to have him here,” said Ora Lee Robbins, a member of Broom’s new congregation. “I think he is a dynamic Christian leader and pastor and his wife, too. We are looking forward to sitting at his feet and learning from him.”
The Methodist minister said he is not planning on limiting his interaction with the community just to his church duties.
“I hope to become involved in the community,” said Broom. “I’ve always been involved in the Rotary Club and always been involved in life in the community whereever I have been.

Broom said his wife Patricia (whom Broom met in junior high school) also has a history of being involved in both the church and the community, however right now she is serving as a care giver for her ill father whom the Brooms have brought to Tucumcari to take care of. “That takes a great deal of her time,” said Broom.